Location:The Millford road — the Halbrook holding; the stone barn; the yard
Date/Time:TC1858.03.17
Cows had a smell when they were thirsty, and Brisk Alder had not known that.
It came across the yard at first light with the wind behind it, sour and hot, wet straw and dung and something under both that caught at the back of her throat. She was east of the barn door with Innes Garrow's spear, where she had stood every first light since the second, and she breathed it in through her mouth and then through her scarf, and it was the same either way.
The cows had bawled most of the night. Around the fourth hour they had stopped. Nobody in the barn had said anything about the stopping, and Brisk had stood at her post and listened to the quiet and decided it was worse.
Then the boards went.
